Puzzle



(No Model.)

P. W. ANDERSON.

PUZZLE.

No. 483,276. Patented Sept. 27, 1892.

UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

PETER IV. ANDERSON, OF ROANOKE, VIRGINIA.

PUZZLE.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 483,276, dated September 2'7, 1892.

Application filed June 9, 1892. Serial No. 436,108. (No model.)

.To all whom it may concern.-

Be it known that 1, PETER W. ANDERSON, a citizen of the United States, residing at Roanoke,in the county of Roanoke and State of Virginia, have invented a certain new and useful Puzzle; and I do hereby declare the following to be a full, clear, and exact description of theinvention, such as will enable others skilled in the art to which it appertains to make and use the same.

The special object of the invention is to make a square consisting of sixteen (16) blocks of equal size and similar form, the said blocks to be numbered serially from one (1) to sixteen, (16,) inclusive. The puzzle is to arrange these blocks in a box or on a table or other flat surface so that the numbers in each row will count up thirty-four at the same time that the four interior blocks will also count up thirty-four, making eleven different ways in which the sum will be thirtyfour.

Figure 1 of the drawings is a perspective view showing a box in which I preferably keep the sixteen aliquot parts of the square; Fig. 2, a plan View showing the blocks arranged upon any plane surface in the exact order and local relation which is absolutely necessary to produce the intended result.

In the drawings, A represents a rectangular box, whose four walls inclose a space twenty per cent. larger than the required square, so

as to allow the slide 13 to move backward and forward across the box. This slide is provided with a long slot 1), which straddles the shank of a pin, bolt, or screw 0 and is guided by it, the said bolt or screw having a head to prevent the slide from falling out when the box is turned upside down. This slide is not longer than three sides of the block or one of the blocks, so as to allow a vacant space at one corner of box. By thus combining a rectangular box greater than the square with the slide B the blocks may be made to change place by pushing them and without lifting them out of the box. For this purpose I might leave out the slide; but, as shown in Fig. 1 of the drawings, the blocks are securely held in position when the slide is moved up to be an equal distance from each end. There is no mathematical formula by which the exact arrangement of blocks can be obtained, and therefore it is not at all a matter of calculation but the result is secured only by patient experiment. The sixteen blocks or fractions of the square are preferably numbered from one to sixteen; but of course they can be designated by any sixteen serial numbers. \Vhen arranged as shown in Fig. 2 of the drawings and counted in vertical, horizontal, and diagonal rows, the sum of the figures is thirty-four; also, the fourinterior numbers, added up, count thirtyfour, making a count of thirty-four in eleven different ways.

Having thus described all that is necessary to a full understanding of my invention, what I claim as new, and desire to protect by Letters Patent, is

The combination of the sixteen numbered square blocks described with the rectangular box A, one-fifth larger than the space or square occupied by the blocks, and the slide B, having the longitudinal slot b, straddling a headed bolt or screw, as and for the purpose set forth.

- In testimony whereof I do affixmysignature in presence of two witnesses.

PETER W. ANDERSON.

Vitnesses:

P. J. HALEY, T. E. TYLER. 

